Question on Lighting and Transitioning to Flower

[Straycat]

Another topic for the experts. Along the lines of tweaking your grows and your nute system do any of you all adjust the PH for differing periods of the grow for better absorbtion of a particular nutrient?

In other words I have been religiously trying to keep my PH between 5.5 to 5.8 during veg. It would fluctuate between 5.8 to as low as 5.1 as in this dry air climate there seemed to be more H20 evaporation through the leaves (they drank faster than they ate) resulting in a continually falling PH.

Now that I am going to flowering do any of you adjust the PH for a time say from 5.5-5.8 range to 5.8-6.1 range for absorbtion of different nutes?

Thx.

 

[Hushpuppy]

No, ther is little room for tweaking the ph. That is more of a chase than an adjustment. Ph is reactive so it has to be maintained in balance to prevent nutrient lockout, and it is a fairly delicate balance depending on yer situation. If yu have trouble with yers dropping then yu can adjust it up as high as 6.2 without any problems (but be sure it is always a dropping situation). for me I always fight a rising ph, so I usually set it about 5.3 and it quickly rises to 5.8 and floats around 6.0. I think it really depends on the brand of nutrients that we use as to how our ph acts (that and our water supply).

 

[Straycat]

No, ther is little room for tweaking the ph. That is more of a chase than an adjustment. Ph is reactive so it has to be maintained in balance to prevent nutrient lockout, and it is a fairly delicate balance depending on yer situation. If yu have trouble with yers dropping then yu can adjust it up as high as 6.2 without any problems (but be sure it is always a dropping situation). for me I always fight a rising ph, so I usually set it about 5.3 and it quickly rises to 5.8 and floats around 6.0. I think it really depends on the brand of nutrients that we use as to how our ph acts (that and our water supply).

Thx Hushpuppy. Yes, mine is always falling (seems to be much evaporation through the leaves or something. My five plants are drinking 2.5 to 3.0g/day resulting in high ppm's and falling PH. I am using a 22g reservoir, starting with 20g and every two days add about 5.0g H2O through the 7 to 10 day nute period before changing nutes. In the veg period I was PH balancing to 5.8 at the start of each nute cycle but if I left it for too long (past two days) before adding some H20, my PH would drop to as low as 5.1/5.0 so at the flowering period I decided I would start the nute cycle at 6.1/6.0 and let the PH get as low as 5.5 before adding H20. Seems better as I don't have to use as much PH Down (phosphoric acid). So far so good.

Anyhow, the reason I asked the question is I was watching a video from those folks at Greenhouse Seed Co. and I heard the guy saying they adjust the PH upward to 6.1/6.2 for a brief period in the Flowering to encourage more P and K absorbtion. Didn't know if anyone else tried it.

Just an FYI for those in areas with hardwater (over 500ppm). It seems Lavender is a strain that tolerates hard water well. I am almost convinced the difference btn the health of the lavender and the other strains is a result of this. The other strains I have don't seem to handle it as well. But then this is my first grow so perhaps I need a few more iterations before I know this for certain. The other one doing well is the purple kush.